]]>When it comes to smart cities and the internet of things, everyone asks, “Where is the money?” I have observed very dissimilar points of view on financing for the IoT in keynote topics in conferences and in discussions throughout the year, in particular at the recent Internet of Things Forum in Cambridge in the U.K., and the M2M & Internet of Things Global Summit in Washington D.C. It struck me that the ideas were as far apart as the venues themselves. It’s important to understand these different funding models, because they are driving the development of the IoT.

There is no easy answer to the funding question because the IoT market is still very fragmented. From our perspective of sensors and hardware, we see small pieces of revenue coming from many different verticals. I think of these as trial balloons, just validating the huge potential of the IoT and its power to be the next technology revolution. Even so, we see smart agriculture and smart cities as the verticals with the most traction right now. Differences in these two sectors shed light on the key question of funding the IoT. Will it be public or private?

The three primary funding models

Smart agriculture is privately funded in many cases, and the return on investment has to be obvious from the start. Smart cities have so many more stakeholders and the approach is not so clear-cut. There are many different ways to support their development, some coming from academia, communities, and industry.

1. Public money. In my view, had it not been for the economic crisis, public funding would have been the normal route. Right now European Union funds play an important role in allowing a number of connected smart cities pilots to really test the technology and accelerate the uptake of services. The existence of these European Commission funds makes the difference between what we see happening in Europe vs. the US market, allowing Europe to lead the way.

At Cambridge people thought of Europe as ahead of the U.S. in the IoT, whereas in Washington there were fears that a “go-with-grants” model is harmful because it is an unsustainable business model. The U.S. wants to see how Europe will maintain smart cities projects over time, and several critics point to the lack of a business model in flagship smart cities projects funded with EU funds. It’s true that these projects are usually led by academia, and business sustainability is not usually the focus. But don’t forget: the very first step is validating the technology.

2. Public/private partnership (PPP). In PPP, private companies invest and go on a cost-savings-share model with municipalities. It is a viable funding mechanism for smart cities, and in fact, the US has a history of finding capital for transportation and infrastructure projects this way. PPPs can create new forms of cooperation and resource sharing.

In this model, who would be the perfect private partner? Here, we stumble into a paradox in the nascent IoT market. Due to the similarity between IoT networks and telephony networks, operators should be the logical owners of IoT infrastructure as a new connectivity channel. However, the system integrators are the ones leading the way. This is because an operator needs to cover a whole country, or at least a circuit including major cities, and that requires a lot of investment. On the other hand, integrators can jump from project to project, testing the hottest verticals. But keep your eye on the bouncing ball, because this situation is evolving. Today operators are letting the integrators pay for their education.

3. Citizen participation. Community-led projects that apply the current trend of crowdfunding through platforms like Kickstarter are gaining momentum. I know of a number of civic projects that are spearheaded by citizen activists, such as AirQualityEgg, a device that measures air quality, or SafeCast’s network of individual airborne radiation sensors in Fukushima (Libelium was a partner in this project).

SafeCast’s crowdsourced map of airborne radiation in Japan.

This is such an interesting model, and I wonder if governments can incentivize citizens to acquire the sensors and build the systems themselves, perhaps by offering tax breaks or other benefits.

Investing the funds: hardware or services?

Once the money is raised, how will we spend it? In Cambridge, the prevailing view was that IoT money should be devoted to infrastructure. In Washington D.C. people were not so sure, because they believe in a model where services generate more money than hardware.

For the sake of argument, I like to compare the IoT to the railway age. There are many parallels, not only because both of these inventions are industrial revolutions with the ability to change everything. For a moment, try to imagine railway and train builders pitching to raise money. Would venture capitalists just tell them “Nah! We prefer to invest in companies that will be handling the ticketing system…?” Of course not! No services are possible, nor is any other type of future business, if we do not have the infrastructure in place.

Someday, it is true, hardware will be commoditized, and revenues will come from services associated to data, but if we are in the midst of raising a new market, that day is still really far away.

Alicia Asin is the co-founder and CEO of Libelium, a provider of open hardware for wireless sensor networks used in Smart Cities and Internet of Things projects.

]]>In the wireless industry, there’s usually a long wait between a technology standard getting finalized and the emergence of its first devices and networks, but the Weightless Special Interest Group isn’t wasting any time bringing its internet of things connectivity technology to market. If all goes according to plan, we’ll start seeing linked sensor grids running in the gaps between TV transmissions by mid-next year.

Neul, the U.K. company spearheading Weightless, plans to start shipping its first machine-to-machine (M2M) communications modules to sensor and device makers in the first quarter and launch its first networks in the U.S. and U.K. in the second quarter. Not bad, considering the SIG only finalized the Weightless standard in April. As a small group – consisting of core members Neul, CSR, Cable & Wireless and ARM – though, it can be a bit more nimble than the big standards bodies.

Neul will sell the initial modules, which will be 35-by-45 mm (1.4-by-1.8 inches) and cost about $12, which isn’t cheap considering they’re intended to go into sensors like structural integrity gauges in bridges and traffic monitors on roadways. But Neul said that as it ramps up its production and improves its technology it will be able to make the modules both smaller and cheaper. In 2015, Neul hopes to ship modules for $7, and by 2016, it plans to build a 20×24 mm module that sells for $4.

Weightless taps into the white space spectrum, the unused channels between TV broadcasts, which is being designated for unlicensed wireless data use in many countries. While in the U.S. white space focus has been on broadband access, the U.K. is keen on using these airwaves as building blocks for new “smart city” infrastructure and as a communications fabric for the internet of things.

So instead of designing big powerful radios designed for high-speed links, Weightless’s key focus is on creating small, inexpensive radios that transmit minute amounts of information, often intermittently, at long range (more than six miles is the goal) while only consuming a modicum of power.

Neul plans to launch the first networks using its own NeulNet base stations. The company hasn’t announced what cities it will launch in first – it already has a trial network up in Cambridge – but it promised to have live networks in both the U.S. and the U.K. in the second quarter.

]]>Intel’s blue sky research group Intel Labs is tinkering with public sensors, big data and algorithms to create experimental ways to track environmental conditions in cities. During Intel Lab’s annual show-and-tell in San Francisco last week, Intel showed off some of these futuristic concepts (as well as how to put a projector in a phone).

Here’s three ways that Intel Labs is looking to make cities better, from reducing allergies, to crowd-sourcing city programs to using LEDs to reduce traffic accidents.

1). Freedom to breathe deeply: Allergies and asthma have increased markedly in the past decade, and climate change might be contributing to that. How can technology help? In Portland, Ore., Intel researchers are using sensors and public data about tree species and the weather to track air quality and map out areas that are free of allergy triggers. The 1-year-old project gave 25 sensors to residents of a northwest section of the city to install them at their homes. The sensors collect readings about carbon monoxide, volatile organic compound, ozone and others.

At the same time, Intel researchers are also using city data about trees in public spaces, such as their species and trunk girth, and crossing them with data from the city of Eugene, also in Oregon, that show the pollination periods of the trees that are most likely to bring on allergies, Intel researcher Adam Laskowitz explained to us last week. By marrying that data with information about weather, project participants can check on the air quality of their neighborhoods and chart routes away from trees that cause their allergies to act up.

2). Civic collaboration: Turning citizens into collaborators around city-greening initiatives is the idea behind a project in Dublin, Ireland. The project, just launched, gives participants an app that allows them to check off the positive things they see around their cities, such as biodiversity and events with eco-friendly themes, as well as negative attributes such as a lack of bike lanes and littering.

All the feedback goes to the city to help policy makers craft better programs or fix problems more quickly. The project includes a reward component to keep the participants’ interest up. They get points for participating and could use them to redeem museum entries or free rides on public transportation, Intel researcher Jessica McCarthy told us.

3). Blinking for safety: LED lights aren’t just a good source of efficient illumination, they also can be messengers. The blinking of the light signal, which happens too quickly for humans to see, can create a communication channel between two objects. In an Intel project with the National University in Taiwan, which is a big LED producing country, researchers are using the light signal to prevent traffic accidents.

The idea is to use LED lights to enable car-to-car communication and allow drivers to react more quickly. The project uses Yamaha scooters, one of which has a sensor mounted above the front headlight and acts as a light signal receiver. When the scooter in front turns on the left- or right-turn signal, the scooter with the sensor would pick up the information broadcast by the blinking LED light. The light signal can deliver information at up to 80 kilo-bits per second, said Intel researcher Yen-Kuang Chen.

In the future, the project could equip one scooter with a navigational device that will communicate its route information to the scooter behind. This way, the scooter in the back could anticipate turns and other movements even if the rider of the scooter in front didn’t signal.

There will be 9 billion people on the planet by 2050, and using IT (big data, software, sensors) to help cities better manage their resources will be a major trend. Intel isn’t the only large tech company focused on this — IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, GE and many others are looking to using networks, silicon, and software to manage urban development.

]]>On a conference table in a San Francisco hotel rests five wifi-based sensors, weighing anywhere from a few ounces to several pounds, that their creators say will deliver more accurate and useful data about our environment, from the energy we use to the noise and pollution levels of our surroundings. The display is part of a show-and-tell by Intel, which is betting on a future in which we could not only need, but want, sensors to live healthier lives.

The sensor technology is coming out of an Intel lab, which is not only engineering devices but also the software for analyzing and visualizing the big data sets that the devices will amass daily. Intel researchers work on both the technology that the company uses to make chips and related technology that could help companies sell more chips. But exactly how Intel might make money from its research depends on the types of investors and customers it attracts.

Environmental sensors aren’t a new idea, so Intel’s goal is to come up with better, cheaper and more easily deployed versions that could be part of a movement to create the future of the so-called smart city. The smart city is about the use of technology to help people use and manage resources – from water and power to transportation and communication systems – much more efficiently. It’s a subject that GigaOm Pro has explored, and it recently published a report called “Key technologies for the future of the smart city” (subscription required).

Concerns for the health of the urban environment will only grow as populations increase and more people are packed into cities, which are responsible for most of the world’s energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. The number of mega cities – defined as those with more than 10 million residents – is set to rise from 22 in 2010 to maybe 60 or even over 100 by 2050, according to the World Energy Council.

“Small is better” is the ideal in many cases when it comes to improving sensor technology. Terry O’Shea, senior engineer at Intel’s Energy and Sustainability Lab, says some existing sensors, such as those that measure air quality, are bulky and sit on the top of tall buildings because there isn’t much room on the streets to put them. But, on the other hand, those rooftop locations aren’t a good place to take stock of pollution levels that have a greater impact on humans.

“Buildings are like great canals and wind funnels through canals and gets trapped in alley ways. Pollution is trapped there, where residents open their windows,” O’Shea says.

Here are the five sensors O’Shea shows off:

1). Motion sensor: The battery-powered black box measures vibrations from all kinds of sources, from earthquakes to autos to foot traffic. Data from the sensor can help city planners and building designers minimize frequencies from vibrations that can cause, say, motion sickness at between 3 to 7 hertz. Intel has tested the sensor on an oil rig off the Gulf of Mexico (O’Shea wouldn’t disclose the name of the oil company), where eight sensors were used to check for the stability and safety of the structure. What makes the sensor different from other industrial motion sensors is its use of a combination of accelerator, gyroscope, magnetometer, and gravitometer, O’Shea says.

2). Weather sensor: This gadget gathers information about humidity, wind speed, air pressure and others, and the small package makes it suitable for street-level deployment. This sensor may not be so different from what’s available on the market already, but Intel wants to create one as part of its broader lineup of sensors for a smart city, says Tomm Aldridge, director of the Energy and Sustainable Lab. O’Shea mused that local shops could install the sensor, make the data available to residents in the neighborhood and use that connection with people to advertise its goods and services.

3). Air quality sensor: The L-shape device measures the concentration of particles such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen and detects down to 3-5 parts per million, making it more sensitive than many existing sensors, O’Shea says. The Department of Homeland Security is particularly keen about installing air quality sensors at airports, he adds.

4). Life management sensor: This electronic piece can also be called “marketing sensor” because Intel designed it to gather and broadcast some personal habits that retailers can use to send targeted advertising. It’s been tested at fuel stations in Brazil where stations can read cars equipped with tags that show when the car last received tire rotation and other types of tune-ups and information such as the car’s fuel economy. The data is embedded in the tags inside the cars, so the station owners don’t own the information, O’Shea says — a design to ease privacy concerns. Given that cars are being increasingly digitized with devices to navigate, entertain, communicate and shop, sensors designed to make it easier to access service can save time and energy. The issue is whether consumers will be getting the information and services they really want.

5). Home energy sensor: Gadgets to monitor a home’s energy consumption isn’t new, and plenty of companies have tried to sell them to consumers, but prices are often too high or the data isn’t sufficient or interesting enough to hold people’s attention for long. Intel’s sensor plugs into a wall socket and reads what each appliance consumes without needing to re-wire the home or plug the appliance into the sensor. Energy is emitted as frequency and each appliance, because of how it uses the energy to power its various components, creates what O’Shea called “jitters” within the frequency that is distinct from one type of appliance to another. Intel has put the sensors in 15 homes in the western U.S. and plans to do a wider field trial with 50 homes through Pecan Street project in Austin. The chipmaker also plans to do a field trial in Europe later.

]]>Streaming video and audio from the likes of YouTube and Hulu now account for roughly 27 percent of global Internet traffic, according to a new study from network management company Sandvine (hat tip to Multichannel News), which surveyed the top 20 ISPs worldwide. This stat is up from 13 percent in 2008.

The window for peak Internet usage, when most everyone is using their connection at the same time, condensed to 7 – 10 p.m. this year, a more primetime version of last year’s 6 – 11 p.m. peak period.

While the overall video numbers are up, Sandvine reports that P2P usage is down to 20 percent of total Internet traffic, from 32 percent in 2008. Sandvine said that the amount of P2P usage is growing on an absolute basis, but VOD applications are growing faster. Sandvine looked at the bits per second, per protocol, along with how many active hosts per protocol on the network.

This dip in P2P echoes other recent reports from Cisco and Arbor Networks that show use of peer-to-peer file-sharing as a percentage of broadband usage is on the decline. In June of last year, Sandvine said that P2P traffic was hogging up bandwidth, generating 43.5 percent of Internet traffic, but that study was just of several, unnamed “leading” service providers, which could explain the discrepancy from the 32 percent number released today.

P2P may be seeing its dominance lessen, but as Janko wrote the other week, “[T]hat doesn’t exactly mean that P2P is dead. It’s just not growing as fast as web-based video streaming, which has been largely responsible for a huge overall growth of net traffic. In other words: A smaller piece of a much larger pie can still be a whole lot of pie.”

Under the Accenture deal, the firm will manage the integration of smart grid technology such as smart meters, oversee the analysis and use of data gleaned from the smart grid buildout, and support other carbon-reducing projects. Financial details weren’t disclosed.

The city of Amsterdam, energy firms and private companies in coming years are expected to invest more than $1 billion to help speed the adoption of electric vehicles, smart grid and building technologies in the European city. As part of the city’s smart grid buildout, the Dutch utility operator Alliander is planning to invest about €100 million ($138 million) per year until 2016 to upgrade its electric grid. And several dozen other projects reportedly are in the pipeline, most of them as pilots that are expected to ramp over the next several years depending on their success.

The first phase of the Smart City program includes the installation of smart meters with data served up to in-home energy displays and the creation of a “climate street” in a popular shopping district that will incorporate what the city calls sustainable waste collection, tram stops and street and façade lighting. The initial phase will also include a “ship-to-the-grid project” in which commercial vessels and river cruisers — Amsterdam is built around canals and is heavily reliant on ships for commerce — will be connected to the electric grid for power when docked.

Besides Accenture, the city has begun inking deals with other private companies as part of its efforts to embrace clean technologies. IBM and Cisco reportedly have been selected to provide technology for a pilot project that will install energy displays in 500 Amsterdam homes that will deliver data collected from smart meters. More than 200,000 homes could be using the displays by 2011. Campbell, Calif.-based Coulomb Technologies has been selected to provide Amsterdam with 45 of its electric vehicles charging stations. The city plans to deploy 200 charging stations by 2012 that are expected to fuel 10,000 electric cars by 2015.